Green Sky Thinking: Waste not, want not, with wonky food

by Colwyn Elder (@colwynelder) Asda, the UK’s second-largest retailer, recently began a campaign encouraging customers to buy “crooked” carrots, “knobbly” pears and “wonky” potatoes.

An attempt to reduce food waste, the “Beautiful on the Inside” range is sold in a dedicated fixture at a discounted price, and is based upon the research that 75% of shoppers would buy ‘wonky’ fruit and veg if they were cheaper than regular produce, according to the retailer.

Prior to 2009, a controversial EU ban on fresh produce that failed to match standard shapes and sizes resulted in an estimated 20% to 40% of UK fruit and vegetables being routinely rejected before it reached the shops.

Yet, even post the ban, veg appeared to retain its perfect shape. The farmers blamed the supermarkets for not relaxing size and shape requirements, while supermarkets blamed consumer demand for unrealistically perfectly shaped produce.

Asda’s “beautiful on the inside”

Asda’s “beautiful on the inside” initiative attempts to redress this unrealistic expectation and educate customers that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

The campaign has also featured in the first episode of Jamie Oliver’s new series, Jamie & Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, whereby the celebrity chef and farmer Jimmy Doherty investigate the extent of food waste in the UK. Here the message comes direct from the source, with farmers telling their story of how they are unable to sell thousands of tonnes of fresh produce because it is deemed to be wonky or ugly.

[Please note that this YouTube video below is the full 45-odd minute episode of Jamie & Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast — ed-at-large.]

“If most Brits had half an idea of the amount going to waste,” says Oliver, “they’d be snapping up ugly veg by the trolley load. There’s no difference whatsoever in taste or nutritional value. This is perfectly good food that could and should be eaten by humans.”

Intermarche’s “Inglorious fruits and vegetables”

While it has received a lot of media coverage, this is not the first campaign of this nature. After the European Union declared 2014 to be the Year Against Food Waste, French retailer Intermarche’s cheeky “Inglorious fruits and vegetables” campaign went viral in March.

Intermarche – ‘Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables’ from Goodvertising on Vimeo.

The trial was such a success that the supermarket rolled out the initiative across its 1800 stores later in the year, with other French supermarket chains such as Auchan and Monoprix following suit.

Woolworths Australia’s “The Odd Bunch”

And it’s not only Europe that’s buying “wonky”. Down south in Australia, Jamie Oliver is also working with Woolworths, where The Odd Bunch campaign directly asks shoppers to choose “taste over waste” and “support our Aussie farmers”.

 

Pick n Pay’s “Imperfectly good”

At a local level, Pick n Pay’s “Imperfectly good” campaign offered 40% off and generated much interest in the five stores where it trialed (and sold out!) in August last year.

What with figures from the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation showing that as much as 40% of fruit and vegetables go to waste worldwide, largely because they don’t meet cosmetic standards, all of these campaigns are a welcome wakeup call.

For retailers, finding the right balance between price and quality is an ongoing battle, but this idea enables them to offer lower prices on products where quality is ultimately about taste, not the girth, length or colour of an artificially created, perfectly streamlined carrot.

 

 

Strategic consultant Colwyn Elder (@colwynelder) brings a global perspective to the issue of sustainability, having lived and worked in London, Tokyo, Amsterdam and Cape Town. She contributes the monthly “Green Sky Thinking” column on sustainability issues to MarkLives.

 

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